This post is an update following up on the ‘next steps’ identified in the blog post which dealt with how I have applied the principles of Environment Design as Cinematography paper. 

• Distribution & Optimisation : Export API for wider user testing. 
• Environment Modelling: Complete basic environment. 
• Character Design : Character Design, Model, Rig and Animate 
• Animation : In Blender 
• Cinematography: Cut Scene Training and Development 

Distribution & Optimisation 
I experimented in exporting builds for Android, PC & Mac and webGL to test whether I had successfully optimised my project. I hit blockers as I became more familiar with the different project and player settings for each build. At one point, unity crashed and I was unable to restore the scene which meant losing a number of hours of work. This was a painful but useful lesson.

I am thinking about Optimisation at every turn, I am keeping my poly count down to a minimum, not using transparency material mapping and I have barely used any lights in my scene.

Environment Modelling 
After my user testing, I appreciate the need to provide sufficient interest, tasks and wayfinding methods. This will greatly improve the users experience.

To to this, I am continuing to implement the basic principles of environment Modelling as Cinematographic direction. I have recently added lines from the poem ‘Wheels’ around the upper
Labyrinth. I have done this as a visual queue at the moment but I am concerned about whether the
text language might break the 4th wall. This is of special concern when I export for VR after Christmas, but I will engage more user testing at this time and so will be able to test for this.

The poetry will be reinforced by characters and objects within the scenes at each point throughout the upper maze. Modelling these characters and props will help improve my modelling efficiency.

I am also in the process of adding more lights to the upper Labyrinth and have some sketches and visual references to work to. I am modelling these in blender and baking the light/shadows to try to reduce the cost of lighting my scene. I am unsure whether this will work as the scenes are quite dark but will test for this by checking their effect in the environments. I am not using them to lead the player but as a landmark test.

I have completed the hole drop Environment. I have stripped out the multi-card map as it seemed far too busy, especially for a brief drop through it. I have added the fairground Entrance cards are
currently lit by separate point lights. To reduce the cost of these I intend to bake the lights.

I remodelled the fairground stall using probuilder but was unhappy with the results. I am finding scale to be a particular issue as well as positioning but I am sure is my inexperience with probuilder rather than the tool itself. To test this I decided to look at how blender (and later maya and 3Ds Max ‘play’ with unity) I have a good foundation with 3DsMax but most studios tent to use maya.
However, as an indie developer, I am likely to use blender.

I am currently modelling the ‘scented night garden’ which will form part of the Rhizome spiral maze.
This began with various photographic references from my experimental work.

It is intended that, as the player travels down the spiral, the garden will grow around them. As well as being beautiful, it will provide a barrier so that the player can’t fall off the stairway.
  

This was followed by a number of paper modelling experiments so that I could define the style I was aiming for as well as lighting tests for cross lighting and shadow casting.

I have followed the 9 hour blender course which will be posted on linked in when I’ve completed it. This has helped to produce a seedpod head which I was able to export to unity as an .fbx file. I learned that I need to remove camera and lights from the export is this will be imported automatically and gives unwanted results. Also, I have discovered that I can use materials in Unity to cover the mesh but I am unable to remodel it here so have to flick between the two programs.

I have tried to follow a couple of videos so that I could apply a door open and close function ta the fairground Entrance. This stalled due to having some build and export issues to deal with but I understand the basics how using an animator ad and animation script which is called when the object is triggered. I have much more work to do here but one applied, this will be useful in introducing much more interactivity to my scenes.

I modelled a vine in blender using a YouTube video which has introduced how to use the timeline and keys to produce animation. This is an experimental feature in blender and so it advises that one should use caution however I really want to produce a magical night garden in the spiral maze and so I am currently working on how I can use this ‘growing’ animation to achieve this.

I am also in the process of modelling, rigging and skinning the fairground worker character(I know it doesn’t look very impressive at the moment!) . This is the beginning of the process. Here I have modelled the characters body, ready for rigging.

Next steps:

• Storyboard Pitch Video 
• Timeline & Cinemachine Training 
• Consolidate Theme Park VR Research 
• Complete pitch video for 12th December 

This post is an update following up on the ‘next steps’ identified in the blog post which dealt with how I have applied the principles of Environment Design as Cinematography paper. 

• Distribution & Optimisation : Export API for wider user testing. 
• Environment Modelling: Complete basic environment. 
• Character Design : Character Design, Model, Rig and Animate 
• Animation : In Blender 
• Cinematography: Cut Scene Training and Development 

Distribution & Optimisation 
I experimented in exporting builds for Android, PC & Mac and webGL to test whether I had successfully optimised my project. I hit blockers as I became more familiar with the different project and player settings for each build. At one point, unity crashed and I was unable to restore the scene which meant losing a number of hours of work. This was a painful but useful lesson.

I am thinking about Optimisation at every turn, I am keeping my poly count down to a minimum, not using transparency material mapping and I have barely used any lights in my scene.

Environment Modelling 
After my user testing, I appreciate the need to provide sufficient interest, tasks and wayfinding methods. This will greatly improve the users experience.

To to this, I am continuing to implement the basic principles of environment Modelling as Cinematographic direction. I have recently added lines from the poem ‘Wheels’ around the upper
Labyrinth. I have done this as a visual queue at the moment but I am concerned about whether the
text language might break the 4th wall. This is of special concern when I export for VR after Christmas, but I will engage more user testing at this time and so will be able to test for this.

The poetry will be reinforced by characters and objects within the scenes at each point throughout the upper maze. Modelling these characters and props will help improve my modelling efficiency.

I am also in the process of adding more lights to the upper Labyrinth and have some sketches and visual references to work to. I am modelling these in blender and baking the light/shadows to try to reduce the cost of lighting my scene. I am unsure whether this will work as the scenes are quite dark but will test for this by checking their effect in the environments. I am not using them to lead the player but as a landmark test.

I have completed the hole drop Environment. I have stripped out the multi-card map as it seemed far too busy, especially for a brief drop through it. I have added the fairground Entrance cards are
currently lit by separate point lights. To reduce the cost of these I intend to bake the lights.

I remodelled the fairground stall using probuilder but was unhappy with the results. I am finding scale to be a particular issue as well as positioning but I am sure is my inexperience with probuilder rather than the tool itself. To test this I decided to look at how blender (and later maya and 3Ds Max ‘play’ with unity) I have a good foundation with 3DsMax but most studios tent to use maya.
However, as an indie developer, I am likely to use blender.

I am currently modelling the ‘scented night garden’ which will form part of the Rhizome spiral maze.
This began with various photographic references from my experimental work.

It is intended that, as the player travels down the spiral, the garden will grow around them. As well as being beautiful, it will provide a barrier so that the player can’t fall off the stairway.
  

This was followed by a number of paper modelling experiments so that I could define the style I was aiming for as well as lighting tests for cross lighting and shadow casting.

I have followed the 9 hour blender course which will be posted on linked in when I’ve completed it. This has helped to produce a seedpod head which I was able to export to unity as an .fbx file. I learned that I need to remove camera and lights from the export is this will be imported automatically and gives unwanted results. Also, I have discovered that I can use materials in Unity to cover the mesh but I am unable to remodel it here so have to flick between the two programs.

I have tried to follow a couple of videos so that I could apply a door open and close function ta the fairground Entrance. This stalled due to having some build and export issues to deal with but I understand the basics how using an animator ad and animation script which is called when the object is triggered. I have much more work to do here but one applied, this will be useful in introducing much more interactivity to my scenes.

I modelled a vine in blender using a YouTube video which has introduced how to use the timeline and keys to produce animation. This is an experimental feature in blender and so it advises that one should use caution however I really want to produce a magical night garden in the spiral maze and so I am currently working on how I can use this ‘growing’ animation to achieve this.

I am also in the process of modelling, rigging and skinning the fairground worker character(I know it doesn’t look very impressive at the moment!) . This is the beginning of the process. Here I have modelled the characters body, ready for rigging.

Next steps:

• Storyboard Pitch Video 
• Timeline & Cinemachine Training 
• Consolidate Theme Park VR Research 
• Complete pitch video for 12th December